Ex-Fox News host Heather Nauert withdraws as Donald Trump’s pick for UN ambassador as Jamaican nanny issue emerges in background check
- Trump had announced in December he would nominate Nauert for the UN position to replace Nikki Haley, who resigned at the end of 2018.
- Suspicion later mounted that her nomination was running into trouble because the White House never formally submitted her name for Senate confirmation
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said she was withdrawing from consideration as President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations.
Nauert’s nomination began to falter after the White House was alerted to a problem in her background: she had in the past employed an immigrant nanny who was in the US legally but wasn’t authorised to work, according to two people familiar with the matter.
She was a Jamaican national employed by Nauert and her husband 10 years ago. The Nauerts paid her salary in cash. When they discovered she was not paying taxes, they insisted the tax bill be paid, a person familiar with Nauert’s situation said.
The statement from Nauert on Saturday night didn’t acknowledge the issue with her nanny or any other specific problem with her nomination.
Nauert’s nanny issue became politically untenable - and would have likely come out in her confirmation hearing - given that halting illegal migration was a centrepiece of Trump’s campaign and has animated his fight to build a wall on the border with Mexico.